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*Great* review, youngfood, and much obliged for the hat-tip (I wish I could take original credit for it, but it might have been Eric who urged me to try it the first time).

Serious question: I don't think you can cherry-pick things - such as Métier being #1 - from Listicles in isolation (this is a general comment, and I'm not trying to bust on Washingtonian - I've dined with Ann and Cynthia, and am quite fond of them both). That said, how do you reconcile Kinship not being in the Top 25?

I haven't closely review Washingtonian's new top 100 yet, but their listing Kinship at 27 is a clear error. I can't say I know the number 1 restaurant in town from the number 5 and there are increasingly many great restaurants here, but there's no legitimate way to explain why Kinship was not in their top 25. I think someone else pointed out that Rose's Luxury is also lower than you might expect and suggested that perhaps the Washingtonian folks weren't inclined to list two restaurants from the same team near the top of the list. That's the only plausible explanation I can see here. For example, I've enjoyed All Purpose and really liked Chiko on our one visit there, but I would never put either one of them over Kinship.

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we got dinner at the bar last night. Everything was great (the hostess even scouted out two seats for us when it was full) but two main observations: the drinks here are much better than they used to be and that chicken is not only still by far the best roast chicken in DC, it's also on the very short list of best dishes in DC.

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we got dinner at the bar last night. Everything was great (the hostess even scouted out two seats for us when it was full) but two main observations: the drinks here are much better than they used to be and that chicken is not only still by far the best roast chicken in DC, but it's also on the very short list of best dishes in DC.

Their cocktails are super - I love a place that really makes sure they focus on this stuff.

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My wife and I went out (a less frequent occurrence now that we have 3 kiddos) for our anniversary last Sunday and were very very pleased we chose to do so at Kinship.

We arrived early for our 830 reservation and enjoyed a couple drinks at the bar - a pear themed fall cocktail for her and a glass of chenin blanc for me. The bar was relatively empty but the dining room was humming even on a Sunday so it was a really nice, relatively sedate, way to start the evening.

Upon finishing our drinks we were informed that our table was ready and escorted from the bar to our table in the back corner of the dining room. As an aside, in the future I’ll definitely try and grab one of the private booths right off the bar. I thought those looked terrific and should’ve heeded the advice of others in the thread above and snagged one. A nice touch was a little card awaiting us on the table wishing us a happy anniversary from the staff.

For our meal we shared 3 courses and a desert, complemented by two excellent half bottles of wine (a nice dry Riesling and an excellently chosen Pinot Noir):

-Squid Agilio e Olio - I literally (and my wife would’ve fought me for it) could’ve eaten a giant bowl of this. Extremely light and dressed so that the squid really shined (and texturally was perfect). We gobbled this up before my wife had a chance to snap a picture.

-Lobster French Toast - I agree with Don that this dish doesn’t totally represent the “best of” Kinship due to its overall decadence. That said - we both really enjoyed splitting it (for me, it would’ve been too rich to eat by myself). I found the “french toast” to be a nice compliment to the perfectly cooked lobster I also thought it was a perfect size.

-Roasted Chicken - I had to convince my wife go this route and man, she was pretty thrilled we did. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a chicken dish of any sort that rivals what we had (and I’d include Palena’s in this). The panade was incredible and I liked the way they shredded the dark meat over the frisée salad. I accompanying potatoes (I wonder if they use the par boil with baking soda technique to get the crusts the way they are) and parker house roles served as nice compliments to the roasted bird.

- BlackRock Orchard Baked Apple - we paired this with the excellent coffee service (its worth getting to echo everyone’s statements above) with this fall focused desert (despite it being 80 degrees outside). The apple may have been slightly underdone - but otherwise this was another excellent dish. I really was surprised at how much I enjoyed the “bay mouse” that served as the base.

Despite some absolutely atrocious behavior from a customer nearby, I was also extremely impressed by the staff at Kinship from both a warmth and an overall level of service perspective, even late on a Sunday evening. Additionally - from a cost perspective, getting out of there after having the amount and quality of the food we ordered plus two very nice half bottles of wine for 160 pp (including tax and tip) felt like an excellent deal (not cheap certainly, but more than fair in my opinion). I really look forward to returning.

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Last Friday, 4 of us tried to go for dinner at the bar. We checked on the website, facebook, and twitter, and saw no reason not to go. Got their hours and arrived at opening.

Seems they were closed for a private event, but had not put information out there to prevent folks from making the trip. I feel stupid doing this, but now I think we have to call before trying to go every time.

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Last Friday, 4 of us tried to go for dinner at the bar. We checked on the website, facebook, and twitter, and saw no reason not to go. Got their hours and arrived at opening.

Seems they were closed for a private event, but had not put information out there to prevent folks from making the trip. I feel stupid doing this, but now I think we have to call before trying to go every time.

I went to a conference in Boston over the summer and this happened to me TWICE! I know BIO was in town and for one of the nights (of 3) I was on the dance-cards of various organizations. Seriously thought of just lying. In retrospect, why didn't I?

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I went to a conference in Boston over the summer and this happened to me TWICE!

Wow. That's amazingly annoying.

I feel like this is a bit more prone to happen to us, since we tend to eat at the bar when possible, so don't always have reservations. Still, some notice out there seems sensible to me, unless you are a reservations only place.

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Last Friday, 4 of us tried to go for dinner at the bar. We checked on the website, facebook, and twitter, and saw no reason not to go. Got their hours and arrived at opening.

Seems they were closed for a private event, but had not put information out there to prevent folks from making the trip. I feel stupid doing this, but now I think we have to call before trying to go every time.

Good thing Corduroy is so close!

That's a bummer, but this facebook post from Friday, October 12, at 1:33 pm states that they Kinship would be closed for a private event that night.

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The Crispy Pommes Anna on the current menu is outstanding! I would go to the bar just to get that...assuming they serve it at the bar. Great for sharing if you're willing to after the first bite.

The rest of our meal there consisted of the Crispy Jerusalem Artichokes, Moulard Duck Foie Gras Confit, Pan Seared Venison Loin, Vietnamese Banana Fritters, Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit, and a special off menu ice cream sandwich for my birthday. Everything was perfectly cooked, but the standouts were the Pommes Anna and the Foie Gras Confit. The richness of the foie gras was a perfect accompaniment to the butter pickle savoy cabbage. @MichaelBDC who generally doesn't even take a bite of dessert much less order his own, polished off the Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit on his own. We shared a bottle of Crozes-Hermitage, which we thoroughly enjoyed. One of the best meals we have had in a long long time and one of the few outings where we felt our dinner was worth every penny.